3 review for The Pirate Tree: Social Justice and Children's Literature

1. 

   4 out of 5

   Shauna Masura – Dec 17, 2011

   The Pirate Tree is a blog with a message: children have the capacity to engage issues of social justice and should be presented with media that has the ability to positively influence their values. Multiple bloggers on the Pirate Tree review lesser known children's literature that pertains to issues of social justice, namely economic justice, poverty, immigration, environment, gender, ethnicity, disabilities, violence, refugees, war, and peace. The design of the website is formatted similarly to The Pirate Tree is a blog with a message: children have the capacity to engage issues of social justice and should be presented with media that has the ability to positively influence their values. Multiple bloggers on the Pirate Tree review lesser known children's literature that pertains to issues of social justice, namely economic justice, poverty, immigration, environment, gender, ethnicity, disabilities, violence, refugees, war, and peace. The design of the website is formatted similarly to a traditional newspaper, which reflects the ways in which the bloggers view their roles as reporters. However this design leaves little room for more than the headline and initial sentence of each article, which causes readers to keep clicking back and forth for full-text articles. The website employs an internal search engine to assist readers in finding relevant information, and the blog can be viewed by the particular area of social justice that interests the reader by utilizing the links provided at the top of the page. These reporters do a great job of unearthing unique titles that might not necessarily get a lot of mainstream coverage. Therefore, the Pirate Tree is a must-read for any librarian, teacher, or parent trying to incorporate books relating to more liberal social values into their collections.

2. 

   4 out of 5

   J.L. –

3. 

   4 out of 5

   Sophia –